I was particularly interested in seeing what kind of fees libraries are charging for digital copies of their images collections. To this I asked the question: If the public wants a high-resolution digital copy of an image, will you provide that to them?

42% of libraries do not offer high-resolution copies

33% offer copies for free

25% charge a fee (e.g. $10, $20, $24)

Interesting to note that a call in to Kinko's furnished me with their scanning prices: $6.99 if they scan it and put it onto your storage device, or, an additional $9.99 to burn it onto a CD for you.

Other questions that were asked on the Historical Photos survey included whether or not the library would provide a physical copy of an item in the collection

5 libraries said they charge between $.10 and $.25 for what I took to mean a copy on regular paper which is printed using the library's printer

4 libraries charge a rate more in line with what a photo shop would charge (i.e. $5.00-24.00)

2 libraries do not provide copies

1 library will provide them for free

When asked about possible tools to help with a Historical Photos collection, responses included: Flickr, Content DM, Facebook, a library's OPAC (in this case, Polaris), Illinois State Digital Archive, Local History Digital Archive, websites created specifically for such things, and library websites.

How much of your historical photos collection is digitized?

All of the collection:16.7%

Some:66.7%

None:16.7%

Is the collection available/viewable online?

All are viewable online:25%

Some:58.3%

None:16.7%

If the public wants a physical copy of an image in your collection, will you provide that to them?

No:16.7%

Yes, for free:8.3%

Yes, for a charge:75%

Do you have any mark (e.g. a watermark) on the image that marks it as being part of your collection?

Yes:66.7%

No:33.3%

No library had a limit to the number of digital copies they would provide.

Hi everyone - I'm hoping you can help out with a quick survey. Kersten Matera from the Nashua (NH) Public Library is compiling data on how libraries handle digitized collections of historical photos.

Please, take a couple minutes to fill out the survey below. It's always interesting to compare how libraries handle similar tasks, and I'm particularly curious to learn what software libraries use to share their digital collections.

When the survey is complete, Kersten and I will post the results for everyone to check out - thanks for helping: